CCHD's quarterly newsletter, Helping People Help Themselves, offers inspiring examples of the good work CCHD funds. 

CCHD New Leadership Award Recipient Remembered for Pastoral Service and Compassion to Migrants

By Patricia Zapor

Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 1, 2026

The immigrant community in eastern Iowa, the members of two small, rural parishes, and the priests of the Diocese of Davenport are among the many groups mourning the unexpected death of Fr. Guillermo Treviño at the age of 39 last October 31.

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development community was familiar with Fr. Guillermo for his work as a founder and most recently chaplain and cochair of Escucha Mi Voz Iowa, an immigrant support organization that receives funding through CCHD.

Read more about the life of Fr. Guillermo and the ongoing work of Escucha Mi Voz Iowa on behalf of immigrants in the latest issue.

CCHD-Funded Organization Unites Diverse Chicago Community in Fight for Environmental Justice

By Rhina Guidos

Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 3, 2025

For almost a quarter-century, the Alliance of the Southeast (ASE, pronounced ah-seh) in Chicago has been growing a multicultural, interfaith coalition of churches, schools, and organizations to address and find solutions to some of the most pressing challenges the community faces.

Read more about how ASE helps community members work with civic officials to promote responsible development and environmental responsibility in the latest issue.

 

CCHD-Funded Organizations Increase Affordable Housing Access in California

By Rhina Guidos

Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 2, 2025

Sandra McNeill has been involved in community organizing work in California for almost 20 years. Even when she started, affordable housing was one of the most pressing issues in the state—and that continues to be the case today.

Read more about how CCHD funding helps the Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust and the Golden State Manufactured Homeowners League are working toward affordable housing solutions in Los Angeles here.

 

CCHD Funding Fuels Historic Criminal Justice Victory in Florida

By Rhina Guidos

Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 1, 2025

“Imagine,” says AnnMarie Silveira, “if mistakes you made in your youth affected the rest of your life. In Florida, that’s what was happening to tens of thousands of young folks for a long time.” AnnMarie is the operations manager and training coordinator for Direct Action and Research Training Center, or DART.

Read more about how DART worked with local community members, faith leaders, and civic officials to advocate for new approaches in juvenile justice that better serve communities and youths with arrests for nonviolent offenses here.

 

Faith in Action: Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award Recipient Ivonn Rivera

By Rhina Guidos

Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 3, 2024

If anyone had the right to be frustrated with rising crime in her neighborhood, it was Ivonn Rivera. Her car had been repeatedly broken into—at least five times that she remembers—with the windows shattered time and again. Then someone crashed into her vehicle and left without taking responsibility.

Instead of moving out, the 43-year-old mother of four decided to do something.

Read more about 2023 Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award Recipient Ivonn Rivera's work with a local CCHD-funded faith-based civic association to improve living conditions in her neighborhood here.  

 

Parents Organize for Improvements in Public Schools

By Rhina Guidos

Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 2, 2024

Whether because of race, a history of family abuse, or geography, some children face a tougher future than others from the moment they are born.

Factors like these can influence patterns of behavior that determine a child's success, or lack of it, from an early age.

Read more about how two CCHD-funded organizations in the Midwest are empowering parents to work together with school districts and officials for positive solutions to challenges such as truancy, discipline, and limited access to healthy food in the latest newsletter.


Past issues of Helping People Help Themselves

US Bishops and CCHD Work to Address Mental Health Crisis
Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 1, 2024

Strangers No Longer: Parish Circles of Support Welcome Migrants in Michigan
Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 3, 2023

Solidarity and Success: Five Years of "Recognizing the Stranger"
Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 2, 2023

Building a Land of Opportunity: Four Bands Community Fund
Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 1, 2023

Renewing the Face of the Earth: Organizing for Sustainability and Economic Health on the Western Plains
Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 4, 2022

Power to the People: Together New Orleans Provides Refuge from Disasters
Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 3, 2022

Community Land Trusts: A Winning Model for Affordable Homeownership
Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 2, 2022

Living Synodality: Walking with Those on the Margins
Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 1, 2022

From Words to Action: CCHD-Funded Groups Bring Laudato Si' to Life
Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 4, 2021

Catholic Labor Network: Defending Workers During and Beyond the Pandemic
Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 3, 2021

CCHD Provides Grants to Fund a Massachusetts Eviction Moratorium
Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 2, 2021

The Post-Pandemic Path Ahead
Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 1, 2021

Diocesan Directors: Building Relationships
Helping People Help Themselves, Issue 4, 2020

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